| Movie DescriptionFour heavily armed men, led by the mysterious Ryder (John Travolta), board the New York City subway 6 train departed from Pelham Bay Park Station at 1:23 p.m., and proceed to take control of it.
Meanwhile, MTA employee Walter Garber (Denzel Washington) is working the Rail Control Center, due to an ongoing investigation that he took a bribe to recommend a Japanese car manufacturer for the next subway car contract.
The group then uncouples the front car from the rest of the train and hold the passengers in this front car hostage. One of the hijackers, Bashkim (Victor Gojcaj), kills an undercover police officer in the course of the action. Ryder and a former MTA train operator named Phil Ramos (Luis Guzmán) settle down in the front of the car, while the other hijackers watch the rest in the back. They demand $10 million in ransom money to be paid within 60 minutes. For each minute past the deadline, one passenger will be killed. Garber and Ryder exchange conversations through the microphone, while Ramos and Emri (Robert Vataj) set up a wi-fi booster apparatus to enable Ryder to access his laptop in the tunnel to watch the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunge nearly 1,000 points during the next hour. Unknown to them, the booster also reconnects an active laptop belonging to one of the passengers, that was casually knocked to the floor by the hijackers, with its webcam facing the car's interior; the link reestablishes the passenger's videochat to his girlfriend's desktop, which she then gives to a local television station, allowing the authorities to use it as a live feed. The Mayor (James Gandolfini) agrees to pay Ryder 10 million dollars.
NYPD Emergency Service Unit Lt. Camonetti (John Turturro) enters RCC, and Garber's boss, who has a rocky relationship with Garber, orders Garber to leave the premises. Camonetti takes over the hostage negotiations, infuriating Ryder, who demands that Garber be put back on the mic and that he will speak only to Garber. When Camonetti refuses, explaining Garber has already left the building, Ryder shoots and kills the train operator, Jerry Pollard, who was Garber's friend and classmate in motorman school. Camonetti immediately has Garber brought back on the mic, talking to Ryder, while he sets up a sniper unit in the tunnel. Camonetti is puzzled as to why Ryder will only talk to Garber, but when he learns about Garber's bribery investigation, he asks Garber to consent to a search of his home; Garber agrees. Ryder learns through news reports about Garber's alleged bribe in Japan and forces him to confess by threatening to kill the boy with the laptop. A woman with a young son attempts to plan a rebellion with an ex-army officer of an Airborne unit. Garber then tells Ryder he took the bribe to pay his kids' tuition. A rat then bites a sniper causing him to accidentally fire, killing Phil Ramos.
Angered, Ryder kills the former Airborne member who voluntered himself to be shot over a woman and child. Ryder demands Garber personally deliver the money to him within 7 minutes. Garber accepts a concealed pistol from a police officer, then delivers the money. Ryder orders him to operate the train to another location, where the hijackers exit. To ensure that the police go to the wrong location, Ryder uses a special mechanism to lock the driving lever in the full-speed position, bypassing the dead-man's switch. The signals had been previously demanded, by Ryder, to be set to green, bypassing the automatic brake and causing the train to head towards Coney Island at high speed.
Garber eludes the hijackers then follows them to the emergency exit inside The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Ryder splits away from Bashkim and Emri, who are then surrounded and killed in a shootout with the police. The runaway train is tripped by an unaltered red signal (possibly set off by Garber with his knowledge of the Subway system) one station away from Coney Island and the train comes to a halt safely. Ryder boards a taxi with Garber in pursuit. Ryder checks his laptop, revealing that his investment in gold has earned him a profit far larger than the ransom money. Ryder leaves the cab on the Manhattan Bridge amid traffic and takes the bridge's pedestrian walkway. Garber holds Ryder at gunpoint, but Ryder gives him to 10 seconds to kill him. Ryder then almost finishes counting to 10 and pulls out his gun, but Garber gets the first shot out. With his dying breath, Ryder calls Garber his hero. The mayor thanks Garber for saving the hostages, and hints the city will support him in the bribery investigation. |
